Recent years have witnessed a remarkable growth in an occupation, aptly called "jogging", which is best enjoyed, or suffered, solitarily, although sometimes practiced in pairs or in groups. Some social observers have ponderously qualified jogging as a way of life, a philosophy, a mystique, a fad, a cult, or simply a form of snobbism, rather than a sport or a search for physical form, fitness and well-being. Joggers of all ages, sizes, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, colors and denominations, have invaded highways, country roads, streets, avenues, parks, parking lots, airport taxiways, and cemeteries. Even the fashion industry has been influenced by jogging.
As many rural and urban, but sedentary, observers have sarcastically remarked, jogging has opened new chapters on modern mankind's perpetual pursuit for happiness and physical fitness. The advantages and disadvantages of jogging have been perpetuated by the authors of many articles and books. One advantage is that jogging does not require any auxiliary equipment short of an appropriately fashionable garb, preferably of bright colors. Another advantage of jogging is that it appears, at least when indulged in within the physical limitations of the jogger, to be a healthfully beneficial endeavor and to provide a good muscular and cardiovascular exercise resulting in improved stamina, intensified perspiration and consequential loss of undesirable and undesired weight through active burning of body fat and elimination of tissue water. However, jogging has also many inconveniences, either momentary and reversible or permanent and irreversible, such as, for example, arrhythmia, tachycardia, ventricular fibrilation, hyperventilation, muscle cramps, endurance fatigue and stress, kidney and urinary disorders, stomach and intestinal problems, feet blistering, carbon monoxide inhalation, broken bones, worn-out joints, chronic joint and lung inflamation, ruptured ligaments and tendons, and dog bites.
An alternate to jogging is walking. Walking is a natural human action which, while still enjoyed by a few, has fallen into disrepute in view of the more conventional alternative provided by motorized means and private transportation. This disrepute has reached the point that walking, one of man's and woman's most natural functions, is often casually prescribed by physicians ironically for its therapeutic value. Walking, however, does not require any special equipment or field, court, rink, course or pool. Walking does not require any special clothing, garb, or uniform.
Long distance walking, or marathon walking, is a very popular competitive sport long practiced in many countries, recognized by sporting clubs and associations, and rewarded by national and international championships. Such competitive aggressive fast-paced walking takes place under strict rules, one of which requiring that each step be effected with the heel of the foot first contacting the ground. Competitive marathon walkers, or marchers, are, in the course of an officially sponsored contest, under constant observation and scrutiny by umpires and referees and immediately disqualified if violating any of the rules.
Competitive walkers, or marchers, walk at a rhythmic pace and fling their extended arms, using their shoulders as pivots, in synchronized timing with the walking legs, the right and left arms swinging rhythmically in opposite directions to the strides of respectively right and left legs. In other words, simultaneously with throwing his or her right leg forward, the competitive walker throws his or her right arm backward and his or her left arm forward, and vice versa. Competitive walkers are complete athletes, with fully developed muscles in the arms, neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, chest, belly as well as the legs.
Without engaging into such an aggressive competitive walking, any average person can achieve his or her sought-after physical fitness, and in addition benefits from greatly improved muscular functions, strengthened heart muscles, and increased cardiac output, pulmonary capacity and physical stamina and endurance, by exercising through aggressive walking without suffering the inconveniences, pains and side effects of jogging. Although walking, like bicycling, may be enjoyed at a leisurely pace, it must be practiced in a somewhat vigorous and aggressive manner, in the form of an exercise, in order to attain all of the expected physical and health advantages. It has been noted, however, that most "amateur" walkers tend to be originally lax in properly and vigorously swinging their arms in time with their leg strides or, if at first somewhat energetic in their arm action, they tend to become progressively lax after a short period of time.
There is therefore a need for an exercising device for aiding an aggressive walker to achieve proper motion-timing and, in addition, providing an indicator of adequate arm motions in synchronism with leg motions. The inventions disclosed in the aforesaid prior application and in the following description provide such a rhythm indicator, arm exerciser and detector of proper arm actions for a person engaged in practicing vigorous aggressive walking while, at the same time, providing him or her with a relatively light hand-supported load, which, if so desired, can be progressively increased as arm and shoulder muscles develop. It has experimentally been determined, through the use of tests such as commonly referred to as "stress tests" wherein a subject is caused to walk vigorously on a power-driven belt or "treadle", that oxygen lung intake is increased by approximately 20-25% through the proper use of the invention, as compared to running the same tests in the usual manner with the subject grasping the test device handle bar and keeping his or her arms motionless.